A Beautiful Beginning
by Jaina Solo2
Summary: Lindsay Boxer meet Jill Bernhardt. Pre-Show. Friendship.


** Title: ** A Beautiful Beginning  
**Rating: **PG-13 for the B word.  
** Fandom:** Women's Murder Club  
** Characters: **Lindsay Boxer, Jill Bernhardt  
** Warnings:** Um, none, I think.  
** Spoilers: **None as far as I know.**  
Word Count: **1, 174  
** Written For: ****calleighj**  
** Prompt:** Lindsay Boxer & Jill Bernhardt / pre-show, how they met / Things You Don't Want: lots of angsting over Tom, lots of angst in general  
** Author's Notes: **Um, this is the first time that I've ever written this fandom or these characters, so mainly I just hope this fic works out okay.  
**Summary:** Lindsay Boxer meet Jill Bernhardt.

* * *

Lindsay Boxer was staring at the sky, the blue sky with puffy white clouds, actually. Staring at the sky wasn't something that she usually did. When did she really have time to stare at the sky? Not when she spent most of her days working on murder investigations, that was for sure, and on the rare day off, well, who wanted to waste the day staring at the sky?

Not Lindsay Boxer.

Which explained why her current position, sprawled flat on her ass on the side-walk, wasn't exactly one of her own choosing or volition.

"Did you play football?" The question was the first thing that popped into her slightly rattled Texan brain.

The blank stare that met her question was almost enough to make her laugh, if she wasn't already swiftly on her way to becoming pissed off. There was no way that Jacobi hadn't seen this and there was also no way that news of this little incident wouldn't be spread around the office within an hour, resulting in endless teasing from the rest of the boys in blue.

She just _couldn't wait_ until Tom heard.

"Football," the young woman belatedly repeated as she offered Lindsay a hand up. "God, no. Not my thing at all. Why?"

"You just hit me like a linebacker," Lindsay drawled. "I was wondering if there was reason for it." She embellished her point with a raised eyebrow.

The blonde grimaced. "Sorry, no. I'm just talented like that."

Lindsay took her hand, and allowed herself to be pulled up to a standing position.

"Jill Bernhardt," the other woman introduced herself before Lindsay could let go of her hand.

"Lindsay Boxer," the brunette concluded the introduction before she dropped her hand and brushed at the sidewalk grime on her jeans. At least there was no apparent damage, other than the stiff bruising that her pride had taken.

"I really am sorry about running into you," Jill continued. "I was supposed to be meeting someone here and I was running late because my boss is a bitch."

"Ah," Lindsay replied, slightly startled by the other woman's bluntness. It was unexpected, but enjoyable. "So who were you supposed to be meeting here before you decided to do your best linebacker impression?"

Jill grimaced at the reminder. "I really was having a bad day. I'm supposed to be meeting some thick-headed, over-muscled, arrogant cop who screwed up his last case. My boss sent me here to straighten things out."

Lindsay smirked, even as her temper flared. She crossed her arms over her chest and glowered.

"Your boss sent you to straighten things out, huh? Well did your boss ever consider that if she hadn't interfered in the first place, the case might not have gotten screwed up?"

The look on Jill's face was one of complete surprise. It lasted for exactly an instant before it hardened into a defiance that Lindsay was all too familiar with.

"That's beside the point. You and your partner went way beyond what's permissible during an interrogation. The suspect alleged that he was beaten by police officers!"

"We didn't touch him," Lindsay scoffed. "Maybe if we had, we could have found that little girl before she died," she added as she stepped forward, forcing Jill to tilt her head back to meet her dark eyes. "If your boss hadn't come in when she did, we might have gotten that information out of him."

"You don't know that," Jill replied. "And if she hadn't come in, you would be under arrest for police brutality today."

"You don't know that either," Lindsay echoed, letting her next words slice through the tense, bitter air. "So don't tell me that we screwed up. This is all on your office."

Jill's only response was an unyielding glare. This day kept getting worse and worse and now this conversation was getting them no where. She had a feeling that she'd finally met someone as stubborn and pig-headed as she was.

"Fine." Jill spat the word out like it was a curse. "But this isn't getting us anywhere. We both want the same thing - to make sure that the suspect goes to jail and stays there for a very long time."

Lindsay relaxed just a fraction, taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly to rein in her temper. "I think we can agree on that," she uttered cautiously, holding her ground.

"Good, then we have some work to do."

"We?" Lindsay objected immediately. "What do you mean we? _We _is what got us into this mess in the first place. If you'd let my partner and me just do our job, this would be taken care of."

"If you had done your job in the first place," Jill countered sharply, letting the implication sink in.

Lindsay rolled her eyes. "We're still having the same argument. That's why I never trust you ADA's; you always say one thing and mean something else. Flip floppers..." She muttered the last sentence with great disdain.

"Please. You couldn't get your job done without us, and you know it," Jill countered, her face illustrating the cockiness that she was exuding. "I don't see why it's so hard for you to just consider working with me."

"Maybe because you called me thick-headed and over-muscled. You also called me a guy. I'll give you arrogant, but I prefer to think of it as confident."

"Well, at least you haven't disappointed."

"Oh, very cute."

"I thought so."

"This still isn't getting us anywhere, you know," Lindsay pointed out, letting her hands fall effortlessly onto the curve of her waist. "And I don't care what your priorities are, mine are clear."

Jill sighed thoughtfully, as instincts honed by years of law school kicked in.

"How about we try this then?"

"I'm listening," Lindsay said cautiously.

"You and your partner work on tying up the loose ends of this case."

"Sounds fine to me so far-" Lindsay interjected.

Jill held up a hand. "Not so fast. If I'm going to trust you with this, then you're going to have to keep me up to date. I cannot have this coming back up to bite me in the ass with my boss."

Lindsay's scowl returned immediately. "That's not how I work."

"Well, you're going to have to or we're going to stand here and keep having this argument all day long and that's not going to accomplish anything."

Lindsay hesitated for a moment to consider her options. It seemed as if this was the best deal she was likely to get, and she could always forget to call the blonde ADA later if she was being too intrusive.

"Fine," she agreed, but then pointed her finger at Jill, "But don't think you can micromanage this. You have to let us do your job."

Jill held up her hands in mock surrender. "Just so long as you don't break any laws, or violate anyone's rights, I won't interfere."

"Fine," Lindsay agreed.

Maybe this could work out after all. Only time would tell.

(1/1)


End file.
